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HOW THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK SHARPLY CUT CHINESE EMISSIONS: We know the coronavirus outbreak is blunting global energy demand, but on Wednesday we learned the virus has reduced China’s carbon emissions by a quarter, at least temporarily.
Lower economic activity, travel restrictions, and longer holidays have helped wipe out a quarter or more of China’s carbon emissions over the past two weeks, according to an analysis from Carbon Brief, a U.K-based research group.
Over a two-week period after the Chinese New Year celebration, when economic activity would normally pick up, China emitted around 300 million metric tons of carbon. That compares to about 400 million metric tons of carbon over the same period in 2019.
Coal use at power plants has been reported to reach a four-year low, while oil refinery operating rates in Shandong province reached their lowest level since 2015. Steel-making activity, another source of coal use, also fell to its lowest level in five years. Domestic flights, meanwhile, are down 70% compared to last month.
The key question for the long-term emissions trajectory of China — the world’s largest emitter — is whether Beijing sustains its lower economic activity and travel restrictions as the coronavirus lingers, or instead ramps up production and implements stimulus measures, as it did after the global financial crisis.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MUCKS UP MESSAGING ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Trump officials are struggling to stay on the same page regarding the administration’s newfound opposition to storing nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
Department of Energy Undersecretary Mark Menezes last week appeared to contradict President Trump’s recent call for “developing alternative solutions” to using the long-controversial Yucca Mountain site.
“What we are trying to do is to put together a process that will give us a path to permanent storage at Yucca,” Menezes said in testimony last Wednesday before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Menezes’ testimony drew fresh notice after Axios reported that his comments were flagged internally to White House officials who have been working on Yucca Mountain.
Trump nominated Menezes to be Energy deputy secretary last week, the number two position at the department.
“It’s a big deal that the possible No. 2 at the Department of Energy came out in defiance [of] the president’s very strong position on a huge issue,” an administration official told Axios, calling it “shocking” that Menezes would “basically give a middle finger to the president.”
How we got here: Menezes’ remarks came days after the White House released its fiscal 2021 budget request, which does not include funding to license Yucca Mountain as the nation’s permanent repository for nuclear waste — unlike previous budgets that supported Yucca. The budget followed a tweet by Trump in which he suggested his administration was “exploring innovative approaches” that wouldn’t include Yucca Mountain, given the dicey politics of the issue in an election year.
Clean up: Menezes tried to clarify his comments Wednesday, assuring he shares the administration’s position of moving away from Yucca Mountain as a long-term solution for nuclear waste.
“I have spoken to the White House and the Administration will not be pursuing Yucca Mountain as a solution for nuclear waste, and there are no funds in the budget to do so,” Menezes told Josh. “I am fully supportive of the President’s decision and applaud him for taking action when so many others have failed to do so.”
SETTING THE TABLE FOR DEMOCRATIC DEBATE: Yucca could come up Wednesday night in the ninth Democratic debate in Las Vegas, ahead of the Nevada caucus this weekend.
All candidates on the stage oppose Yucca, but they have not clearly articulated an alternative plan for how to handle nuclear waste, so maybe moderators probe into that, or ask more broadly about the more divisive question of the future of nuclear energy.
Michael Bloomberg will be appearing at his first debate, joined by Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar.
AMERICA’S ‘INNOVATION’ AGENDA IS LACKING, TOP CEOS WARN: Congress and the executive branch must seriously expand federal funding to develop new clean energy technologies in order for the U.S. to achieve net-zero emissions, a dozen leading CEOs warned Wednesday.
The American Energy Innovation Council, representing nearly a dozen CEOs including those of Xcel Energy, Shell, Southern Company, and Dominion — along with Bill Gates — issued a report that calls for tripling U.S. energy research, development, and deployment budgets to $16 billion a year to help lower the cost of technologies.
The group recommends boosting funding for the Energy Department’s advanced energy research agency, ARPA-E, to $1 billion, and for Congress to consider energy tax provisions for early commercial deployment of new technologies, among other proposals.
It cites key technologies that need to scale up with lower costs, including energy storage, advanced smart grids, carbon capture — including direct air capture — low carbon transport, advanced nuclear, and others.
“In order for Xcel Energy to achieve our ambitious goal of providing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050, we need new, carbon free dispatchable technologies to emerge,” said Ben Fowke, CEO of Xcel Energy.
The report calls out misconceptions in both parties regarding clean energy, taking to task some Democrats who argue the technology to reach net-zero emissions already exists, and many Republicans who claim to favor “innovation” but haven’t fully committed to funding technologies through their lifecycle.
The report points out that the U.S. dedicates a small share of its research budget to energy and other industrial technologies, ranking in 14th place among all countries in terms of public energy R&D spending relative to national GDP in 2017.
MORE STATES TAKE THE REINS ON COOLANT EMISSIONS: Federal policy to limit potent greenhouse gas refrigerants is all but frozen at the moment, and states are getting fed up.
Three more states — Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island — announced Tuesday they would pursue their own state-level regulations to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. Their push is in the face of reticence by the Trump administration to support a global deal to phase down HFCs and as bipartisan legislation to address the coolants appears stalled for now.
Maine will seek to pass legislation directing an HFC phaseout, while the Massachusetts and Rhode Island environment agencies will propose regulations this year to reduce and replace HFCs, the states announced.
The number of states doing their own thing is growing: And it could further complicate the path for bipartisan legislation to reduce the greenhouse gases consistent with the global HFC deal — the measure appliance and chemical manufacturers really want.
Several House Republicans gave the bill a chilly reception in a hearing last month, and they made it clear they objected to the fact that the legislation doesn’t include preemption provisions and instead leaves the door open for states to pursue their own rules.
California, Vermont, and Washington have already adopted HFC reduction targets. Five more states have pledged to either issue regulations or pass legislation doing the same.
For now, industry is trying to head off any confusion: The last thing manufacturers want is multiple different standards at the state level.
“What we try to do, once a state has announced its intent to regulate HFCs, is provide technical expertise and practical solutions, while working with them to try and harmonize state-initiatives to the greatest extent practicable,” said Francis Dietz, vice president of public affairs for the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute.
“That helps not only industry, but consumers as well,” he told Abby.
2019 A BRIGHT SPOT FOR US SOLAR JOBS: And it comes after back-to-back years of job losses, as the U.S. solar industry was hit with tariffs and other short-term policy changes that put a damper on growth.
The U.S. solar industry added more than 5,600 jobs in 2019, a 2.3% boost, pushing the entire industry to nearly 250,000 workers, according to a new report from the Solar Foundation. Since 2010 alone, U.S. solar jobs have increased 167%, the report notes.
Thirty-one states also saw bumps in solar jobs, with Florida adding the most jobs in 2019. However, California, the state with the most solar jobs overall, saw a 3.4% dip in solar employment last year.
Would solar shine brighter without trade restrictions? The industry certainly thinks so.
Even as they’re touting the 2019 jobs numbers, solar industry representatives say they’d see much greater growth without tariffs.
“For the last few years, the data has been clear: U.S. solar jobs grow when trade restrictions decline,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. She added that more than half of the companies surveyed by the Solar Foundation said unfavorable policy deterred their growth in 2019.
NEW EPA GRANTS TARGET LEAD IN DRINKING WATER: The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it will provide around $40 million in grants targeting lead service line replacements in disadvantaged communities and projects removing sources of lead in schools.
The new grants build on $87 million in funding already announced by the EPA to implement the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act.
The Rundown
The Atlantic Jeff Bezos has pledged more money to battling climate change than anyone ever has before. But where will it go?
BuzzFeed News Al Gore’s new campaign to save the planet
Wall Street Journal The environmental battle over the Mexican border wall
Washington Post We’re vastly undercounting methane emissions from fossil fuels, scientists say
Calendar
THURSDAY | FEB. 20
9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW, 12th Floor. Ditte Juul Jørgensen, director general for energy of the European Commission, speaks at the Atlantic Council on the European Green Deal and the future transatlantic energy agenda.
